Mystery on Reminisce Road, Part 3

Physical evidence seems to put Melissa Mooney’s ex-husband at the scene of the crime.

Mystery on Reminisce Road

This content comes from a Full-Text Transcript of the program.

MANKIEWICZ:When
Melissa Mooney
was murdered near
Wilmington
,
North Carolina
, in
August 1999
, the obvious suspect was her ex-husband
Roger
, a Marine based at nearby
Camp Lejeune
.
Larry Bonney
was
Melissa
's boss at the
FBI
.

Mr. BONNEY:I called up one of my agents. I tell him to pull
Roger
in and start talking to him, which he did.

MANKIEWICZ:Melissa
's
FBI
colleagues knew she'd had a troubled relationship with her ex, and agents would soon hear about a chilling prediction
Melissa
had made to a girlfriend. `If I'm killed,' she said, `
Roger
did it.'

Mr. BONNEY:You know, somebody has all night to think about, `Somebody's going to
come and talk to me
because I'm the husband and we had a contentious relationship.' He's got time to come up with a story.

MANKIEWICZ:When
Roger Mooney
was questioned that first day, the
FBI
says he cooperated. But he was angry, said he didn't know a thing about it. His alibi? He said he was at home, near the base, about 70
miles away
. His roommate left for work around
10 PM
, and
Roger
says he went to bed shortly after, his daughter
Sammy
asleep beside him. And as for
Melissa
's new
house
?
Roger
said he'd never been there. I'm guessing that interrogation is not terribly friendly.

Mr. BONNEY:It was not. And there was no question in his mind that he was the target.

MANKIEWICZ:Roger Mooney
may have been the primary target, but he wasn't the only one. Investigators would look at other men in
Melissa
's life. At least one was married, with reason to hide an affair. Each was scrutinized and then ruled out. Investigators looked at anyone with a possible motive. But they found nothing.
Roger Mooney
stayed at the top of the
FBI
's list as investigators tried to either make a case against him or rule him out.

Mr. ACKLEY:His abrasive personality, his anger issues and everything else surrounding
Roger Mooney
and there is -- a relationship with his ex-wife that made him a suspect.

MANKIEWICZ:Just because you have a contentious relationship with someone doesn't mean that when they do turn up dead that you killed them.

Mr. ACKLEY:Absolutely. But what it will do is make you a suspect right away. And it did with
Roger Mooney
.

MANKIEWICZ:Roger
's car and home were searched exhaustively. His friends, family, past girlfriends, high school teachers all questioned.

Mr. ACKLEY:We literally turned
Roger Mooney
's world upside down.

MANKIEWICZ:They talked to his Marine buddies and heard about something
Roger
had said at
target practice
.

Mr. COX:He made a statement, `Well, if I had put my wife's picture up there, I'd shoot expert.'

MANKIEWICZ:In other words, `If I had a photo of my ex-wife to use for
target practice
, I'd be better'?

Mr. COX:That was the gist of it. Yeah.

Mr. ACKLEY:That's -- yeah, that's the context of the statement.

MANKIEWICZ:And it was clear
Melissa
's killer had been angry, and strong. Angry enough to kick in a door, strong enough to overpower a woman using his bare hands.

Mr. BEN DAVID:What we found significant about
Melissa
's injuries is what we didn't find. We didn't find many defensive wounds. It's as if she was rendered absolutely helpless by her attacker.

MANKIEWICZ:Ben David
is the district attorney in
North Carolina
's
New Hanover County
. His twin brother,
Jon
, is the assistant
DA.
The
Davids
were not in office when
Melissa
was murdered, but they've spent years on the case.

Mr. B. DAVID:It was an intimate attack, strangling the life out of a nude woman in the bed of her own home.

MANKIEWICZ:But was it sexual? There was no
DNA
on her body. They kept looking and found a
crime scene
crammed with evidence, including dozens of hairs. That wasn't surprising, since
Melissa
's new
house
had been on the market, plenty of potential buyers had been through. But one person's genetic signature stood out.

Mr. JON DAVID:Roger Mooney
's
DNA
, his semen was on the mattress. And his hair was also at our
crime scene
.

And he claimed never to be at this
house
.

MANKIEWICZ:It was direct physical evidence which seemed to put
Roger Mooney
at
the scene of the crime
.

MANKIEWICZ:He says to his friends, `I'd be better at
target practice
if my wife's face was on the target.' She says to her friends, `
If I ever
get killed, it's
Roger
.'

He has an alibi, but it's pretty far from ironclad.

MANKIEWICZ:And a hair of his turns up in the
house
. And he never lived in that
house
. Aren't there people on death row for less?

Mr. B. DAVID:There's no question we had probable cause to arrest him on what you just described.

MANKIEWICZ:The theory was that after his roommate left for work,
Roger
got in his car, drove the 70 miles to
Melissa
's
house
, kicked in the door, killed her, then turned around and drove 70 miles home in time to get his daughter to the babysitter at 5:15 and himself to the Marine base shortly after. It was a lot of business in a very short time.

Back in
Pennsylvania
,
Melissa
's family remained convinced
Roger
was the killer.

DEBBIE:I thought she got in an argument with
Roger
.

DEBBIE:He kicked the door down, and it just went really wrong.

MANKIEWICZ:Melissa
's family clung to assurances from the
FBI
that the case would be closed quickly.